Comments on: Regarding Ghana

By: Noel

Noel — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 04:58:04 +0000

The school of hard knocks still hurts. It’s not like the USA hasn’t paid dues (eg 1950 v England), but for some reason they haven’t counted. We’re still a young program. A frustrating series of bad events, beginning with the FIFA madness with world rankings vis a vis WC seeding, extending to the one-off form of the Czech team, and then to the selection of refs for the next two games. That our team was underwhelmed and coached petulantly compounds the bad run.

I’m watching Croatia v Aussie right now (yeah, DVR goodness), and Croatia are getting away with murder, completely inconsistent with how USA v Ghana was called. Angles are everything with refereeing, and ours didn’t add up symmetrically, as Korangteng noted.

I don’t think a single team that started in a 4-5-1 formation came up with a win in this group stage. Every winning team started with at least 2 up front (right Scaryice?). The ball and the refs demanded offense, and Bruce played it safe and defensive.

Jose+10 for 2010! 1-1-8!

By: Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah

Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 22:09:12 +0000

The penalty was harsh when seen from the goal or from the sideline but fairly reasonable from the angle the referee was looking.

Bruce Arena said a very revealing thing that he told the team at half time that they would likely get a “make up” call. I think this is the clue to what went wrong, as a manager you know you’ll get a make up call if your team presses, but you shouldn’t tell them that. Encourage them to go out and make their luck.

The reverse happened to Togo against Switzerland. They were down 1-0 and had a player tripped for a clear penalty if you looked from the goal or from the side. If you were standing where the referee was, it looked like a dive by the togolese player and an angelic swiss defender…

That there is the school of hard knocks.

I don’t know about Spain… I’m still thinking Ecuador…

By: glenH

glenH — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:32:51 +0000

I thought I was through, but I am going to start the “St. Johns wort” iv drip. What a great effort by Ghana. I wish them all the luck in the next round. O’ course renaldo and company is not a pleasant prospect.
best regards

By: J. Michael

J. Michael — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 02:09:20 +0000

As I said, “Landon is a cheesebag.”

By: rob

rob — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:06:19 +0000

Amen to the Klinsmann…

I’ve always been a Bruce fan, but I’m with Wynalda on this one. Thanks for the great service to us Bruce, but I think its time for some fresh blood. An outsider. Someone who will not be afraid to drop our “best” players (Beasley, etc.) when they aren’t performing in favor of those who are (Dempsey, etc.).

By: DJ Walker

DJ Walker — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 22:56:44 +0000

What an awful, awful, morning. Even with the horrendous officiating, we should win that game.

I feel sick.

My choice for the new USA coach is that little kid Jose from the Adidas +10 commercial.